INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The next Operation Medicine Cabinet is Saturday, Sept. 29, at locations all around Indian River County.
DO Bring unused or expired prescriptions and Over-the-counter medication to one of the Locations listed for proper disposal.
DO Lock up all medications and keep away from children and teens.
DON’T Flush medication down the toilet-
It is a danger to our environment.
DON’T Bring needles or other ‘sharps”-
They cannot be accepted.
Instead take them to the Health Dept. at 1900 27th Street,
Operation Medicine Cabinet- (OMC) a prescription for safe kids and a clean environment is a pharmaceutical take back program that includes a plan to clean out your medicine cabinet and secure your medications. It provides educational materials to assist parents in detecting and preventing youth substance abuse, along with healthy kid’s information. We collect controlled substances including all varieties of medications.
The latest annual study on prescription drug use reports that an alarming number of teenagers are abusing a variety of prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) medications to get high. Don’t let your medicine cabinet be your child’s drug supply.
Medications are produced in many forms – pills, liquids and powders, inhalers are used for well being, illness, annoying and painful conditions – we take them home- put them in cupboards, drawers, medicine cabinets or maybe leave them on the counter – they can be used appropriately, overused or abused or maybe even stolen. When they are expired/unwanted/not used, how do we get rid of them?
Responsible disposal of pharmaceuticals starts with YOU!
Bring them to the Indian River Sheriff’s Office, Monday – Friday between 8:00am and 5:00pm for destruction – DO NOT FLUSH, do NOT place them in the trash. Our program incinerates all medications.
We will take medications, over-the-counter, prescription, liquids for proper disposal. We do not take “sharps”.
***We will NOT accept from pharmacies, Medical personal or Doctor’s Offices. According to FSS 499.028 (9) Regulation of Trade, Commerce, Investments and Solicitations (Drug, Cosmetic and Household Products), “ALL OUT-OF-DATE DRUG SAMPLES MUST BE RETURNED TO THE MANUFACTURER OR DISTRIBUTOR OF THAT DRUG SAMPLE”.
There are many reasons for this program and that is:
- Our kids are dying
- We are providing easy access to our kids as the Medicine Cabinet is the new drug dealer
- We are not holding our pharmacies accountable to be responsible to take back the medications they produce and make money from.
- We are changing our planet
- By dumping disposed pharmaceuticals into our ground water we are forcing specie mutations
- We are polluting our environment
More and more each year that we do this program we are having a higher success rate. Our numbers are going up on getting the medications out of the medicine cabinets. We have been doing this program for four years and have gone from 70 pounds a year to almost 700 pounds, for this year as of August 2012.
So please take a look in your medicine cabinets and help get rid of those unwanted medications.
Any questions please feel free to call me. Thank you
D/S Roberta Barker
Crime Prevention Unit
(772)770-5028
For more information on Preventing Drug Abuse and overdoes by minors, contact the N.O.P.E. (Narcotics Overdose Prevention & Education) Task Force of Indian River County at
(772)978-6416.
